Leave it to Beavers

If you said that the Betty Beavers sign is offensive to women I might agree, except, well… it’s a beaver. I’m no stranger to Betty, in fact I’ve written about the eye-popping signs before, but until recently I’d never seen one up close.

The sign, seen at Betty’s five locations between Canajoharie and Bennington,  is what you would get if snickering 14-year-old boys were in charge of graphic design. The bodacious 3-D beaver beckons to truckers and other road warriors, welcoming them in for fuel and food, an inviting refuge from the cold, hard highway.

The truck stop’s home page has a link to the The Legend of Betty Beaver, a long rambling tale that made my head hurt. I can’t remember any of it, except that it involved a French Canadian truck driver. That’s interesting since it was lonely French explorers who named the Teton range in Wyoming. Doesn’t it make sense that a bleary eyed Canadian trucker envisioned a beaver with giant breasts?

This got me wondering: could there have been a real woman named Betty Beavers, someone who inspired the name of the truck stop and the sign? We may never know, because as it turns out there are scores of Betty Beavers across America. It’s probably better that way.

4 thoughts on “Leave it to Beavers

  1. There’s something that I find innately disturbing about this. I don’t think it’s the objectification aspect of it so much as the sexualization of an animal.

    “Oh man, lookit the titties on that woodland creature. I’m gonna put it in her!”

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